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An Extendible Regular Expression Compiler for Finite-State Approaches in Natural Language Processing

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Book cover Automata Implementation (WIA 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2214))

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Abstract

Finite-state techniques are widely used in various areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP).As Kaplan and Kay [12] have argued, regular expressions are the appropriate level of abstraction for thinking about finite-state languages and finite-state relations.More complex finite-state operations (such as contexted replacement) are defined on the basis of basic operations (such as Kleene closure, complementation, composition).

In order to be able to experiment with such complex finite-state operations the FSA Utilities (version 5) provides an extendible regular expression compiler.The paper discusses the regular expression operations provided by the compiler, and the possibilities to create new regular expression operators.The benefits of such an extendible regular expression compiler are illustrated with a number of examples taken from recent publications in the area of finite-state approaches to NLP.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Groningen, Groningen

    Gertjan van Noord

  2. University of Tübingen, Tübingen

    Dale Gerdemann

Authors
  1. Gertjan van Noord
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  2. Dale Gerdemann
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Potsdam, Institut für Informatik, August-Bebel-Straße 89, 14482, Potsdam, Germany

    Oliver Boldt

  2. Institut für Informatik, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam

    Helmut Jürgensen

  3. Department of Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5B7

    Helmut Jürgensen

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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van Noord, G., Gerdemann, D. (2001). An Extendible Regular Expression Compiler for Finite-State Approaches in Natural Language Processing. In: Boldt, O., Jürgensen, H. (eds) Automata Implementation. WIA 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2214. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45526-4_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45526-4_12

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42812-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45526-4

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